


mala in se

by orphan_account



Series: the dreamers are wild [4]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mental Illnesses, Tags will be added as the story goes along, like really heavy angst, okay guys this was a prompt i actually love johnny, slight homophobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-12-17 11:21:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11850519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: in which the dreamers are suddenly ignored by the older members. jisung's a smartass, donghyuck is very much in love with mark, jeno just wants his nap, jaemin wants to get better, chenle wants his book to end the way he wants it to and mark doesn't want to be called crazy.





	1. 365 so stressed

**Author's Note:**

> okay hi again i'm back with yet another trainwreck of a work!!  
> i saw so many comments on instagram about the whole 'iS mark acc leaving nct dream??' and 'stop overworking mark!!'  
> my friends and i surprisingly found this to be a very good opportunity to further my skills in writing angst  
> (iDK WHY OKAY)  
> please leave comments i luv talking to yall a lot<3<3

sm was really getting to him. mark had wanted to tell the whole goddamn world that lee sooman was a total son of a bitch, with the cherry bomb mini album out on the fourteenth of june, taeil-hyung’s birthday, young and free with xiumin-sunbaenim, lemonade love with parc jaejung and nct dream’s comeback piled on top of that too. doing the ‘boy’ video on his birthday didn’t really help either, with him just wanting to hang out with jaemin and jeno and even the little shit jisung. birthdays were meant to be all that in south korea and japan, seeing as the anime characters always had that diabetes served with strawberries as a cake and balloons and little cute gifts that even had a little box bought with it to show that the person giving was a caring person.

 he guessed that sm wasn’t really part of the ideal ‘korea and japan’ concept that westerners like him always thought of, because as soon as that episode of the boy video stopped filming, the rest of the cake was taken out of the members’ hands and taken far into the depths of the forbidden land that the residents called the ‘staff’ room. rumour had it that the last trainee that went in there was kicked out of the agency. mark knew since the first week he was accepted into it that he knew not to fuck with the staff.

once, taeyeon sunbaenim grabbed him forcefully by the wrists and dragged him to the back of the events room, covering his mouth with her hand. he distinctely remembered her ragged voice as she said, ‘markie-ah, don’t sit before the hyungs, don’t slouch, smile at all times and speak when you are spoken to, okay? these are basic rules as an idol debuting under sm,” a stroke to the face, “and the staff have adopted new ways of punishing you if you are out of line. joohyun and seungwan are under a dinner ban for 3 weeks because they ate quickly at the table and sat for 5 minutes waiting for everyone to finish. the manager lost his crap once he saw the broadcast,” a slender hand found it’s way into his hair, “please, do this for noona. I don’t want you getting stressed at such a young age, yah?”

**_monday_ **

_“you broke me with your topaz fist”_

mark couldn’t have been less naïve at the time, he thought, as he ruffled through his belongings in his room. he decided since today was his free day (it really wasn’t, he calls it torture level 0.5, because there is less practice time and no meetings discussing comebacks and debuts) he would organise his room a bit and move things around. ten, his previous roommate, had complained about how weird he was at night and how depressing it was to have someone gloomy with him all the time, therefore prompting him to move out and in with youngho. mark stared at the bed adjacent to his, looking at how neatly folded the comforter and sheets were. stalking over to it, mark sat gingerly before placing his hands down beside him, letting them lose to explore the cleanliness of the brilliant white duvet covers.

“yah, mark?”

said boy looked up from his position and made a face.

“that’s mark-hyung to you, maknae.” he said, stretching his arms above his head. haechan puffed out his cheeks in annoyance and sat on mark’s bed so they were both facing each other. jumping up and down a bit, he proceeded to smile and jiggle his head around.

“all formalities disappear when your best friend has a gloomy face on them, huh? yeri-noona always told seulgi-noona that.” mark chuckled and poked him on his shoulder.

“yeri is only a year older than you, donghyuck-ah. what’s with all the honorifics?” he pushed the boy back until his head was hanging off the bed.

“yah, yah, yah! mark-hyung stop! eomma made this bandana for me!”

“it doesn’t suit you, then. it suits someone handsome!” donghyuck pouted.

“then what am i?” he asked, sitting up to pull at mark’s newly obsidian locks. mark’s eyes fluttered closed at the new contact. in all his years, which weren’t many, he had a really bad habit of dissolving into nothingness whenever his head was stroked or touched by donghyuck, which kinda sucked because donghyuck always found a way to get out of one of mark’s beatings. it kinda helped him but it kinda haunted him at times.

 it reminded him of one of those times where tao-sunbaenim would talk about his allergies to cats on a show, then stop himself and say, ‘wait, someone could use this against me’. it was strange, really, but that was the only reason he actually looked up to him. he could protect himself without thinking about the others around him too much.

after humming for a while, mark replied.

“the sun.”

“uh huh,”

“the stars.”

“yep.”

“that’s it.” donghyuck stopped. he slid his hands harshly away from mark’s head, causing him to drop on donghyuck’s lap. mark leisurely looked up from his spot and rested his eyes on donghyuck’s irritated face.

“why can’t I be the moon, mark-hyung?” he crossed his arms and sulked. a knock at the door brought them to their senses. when it opened, he could see ten’s face peeking out meekly from the narrow space he allowed himself. mark sighed and got up, whispering calmly to donghyuck,

“because i’m our moon.”

ten looked at mark with a look of confusion as the younger pushed ten out of the way and walked out. it couldn’t have hurt that much, mark thought, as he not so leisurely strolled over to the cafeteria. the girl who manned the till, areum-ssi, was one of the only people who generally understood him and his apparently ‘weird’ ways of life.

“annyeong, mark-sunbaenim.”

“areum-ssi.” she smiled one of her signature crooked smiles. fixing him a white mocha, (‘no sugar, please.’ ‘jeez, I know already! you’ve ordered this for the past 7 months.’) she got a mini chocolate cupcake from the little fridge thing attached to the counter and sat down, pushing him his drink and munching on her cupcake.

“rough morning already, huh?” at mark’s nod, she continued.

“let’s play the game, then. how many guesses do I get today?”

“it’s easy, so 4.”

“hmm, okay.” she placed her cupcake down on the table and dusted her shirt off. licking her lips, she grinned.

“sijalkke bolkka?” mark nodded.

“doyoung-sunbaenim came to you and said your singing sucks?” mark shook his head.

“donghyuck-ah ate all of the after-mints?” another shake of the head.

“ah! ten came to your dorm and told you that you were crazy.” mark made a so-so face. putting his hand on the table, he signalled for her to stop.

“ten-hyung came to my room and looked at me like he couldn’t even say anything to me. it’s like i’ve become a monster. am I that repulsive. and- no, no, no, areum don’t sing it.” areum pouted.

“it’s not my fault I’m such an exo stan, jeez mark.” propping her head up with her hand, she stared gleefully into mark’s eyes.

“when will I get to meet donghyuck-ah? he seems like a fairly nice guy.” mark tilted his head in confusion.

“I’m sure you’ve seen him around, he comes with me all the time to the cafeteria.” areum gave him a ‘huh?’ look.

“slap me if i’m wrong or if I need glasses but I’m pretty damn sure i haven’t seen a boy come with you here every morning for the past 4 years.” mark hesitated, but regained confidence and reached over to slap her lightly on the cheek.

“maybe you need glasses.” areum hummed, then lit up. she hurriedly pulled a voucher out from her apron. she waved it in front of mark while explaining,

“i got it in the post this morning! free glasses with a positive eye test. wow, what if i was proven positive? i could get those gucci glasses that seungwan was telling me about. jinjja, that would be so awesome!”

“areum.” she stopped her rambling to look at mark.

“mm hmm?”

“you don’t have to make yourself have myopia to get glasses for free. seriously, they can hurt your eyes and you’ve been blessed with 20/20 vision too. jinjja, girls these days are so unpredictable.” she laughed, her minty breath mixed with the chocolate cupcake reaching mark’s nose.

“ ‘these days’. jeez markie-yah, you sound like an old man. i’m older than you, too!”

“okay, noona.”

“now that makes me sound too old. i’m only like 4 months older than you, haha.”

“what do you want to be, areum? old or young?”

“young but older than you but not too much older than you.” mark made a face.

“but you already are, noona.” areum copied mark’s face.

“stop calling me that! and was that a really cringey was of saying love yourself?” mark laughed.

“maybe.”

“awh mark, i don’t want you to grow up.”

“me either.”

they sat in a comfortable silence, mark sipping his slightly lukewarm drink and areum finishing her cupcake. mark wished silently to the stars that life could be easier for him. it seemed that the stars really hated him, though, as he groaned inwardly when he saw johnny stalking into the café. areum stood up and bowed upon seeing him.

“annyeonghaseyo hashimnikka johnny-sunbaenim.” she said smoothly. mark’s eyes followed johnny as he walked over, standing up and putting his hands in his pockets and walking past him, after pushing his drink towards areum and saying, ‘you can have the rest, on me’.  johnny smiled his fucked up smug smile as he looked between mark and areum and said coolly,

“dating isn’t allowed in this agency, right? i might just have to inform soo man-ssi about this.” mark wasn’t affected in any way as he was used to dealing with johnny’s shit day to day but on look at areum made him want to cry. her dainty hands were balled up into fists as she was fighting back her tears.

“johnny, stop being an ass or I’ll end you.” he said in english.

“awh, the little baby chick has forgotten his manners. so cute. maybe he’s growing up.” johnny pondered out loud.

mark was tired of this shit.

 

practice was grueling enough as always, with going to nct 127’s room then to nct u’s. mark didn’t even get why nct u had a practice room of their own, it wasn’t like they were active anyways.  with ten out for recovery, there was no point as to have a separate unit anyways. ten was the star of nct u, many people had thought, due to the fact that he was only ever in nct u and no other unit. nct dream wasn’t talked about and nct 127 was the hot topic going around.

flopping down on the floor, mark looked at the mirror that stretched all across the wall before he saw the little shit jisung with jaemin, jeno and haechan. when mark saw jaemin, through the mirror, his eyes widened. turning around, he ran over and engulfed him in a hug that could suffocate. jaemin winced slightly but returned the hug with one of his healing smiles (that’s right yuta, jaemin invented it not you).

during their ‘reunion’, donghyuck stood off to the side, looking like a kicked puppy. mark took a look at him before using his left arm to drag donghyuck into it too. after about  3 minutes of straight out hugging, mark felt overwhelmed, and broke it, heaving a sigh slowly after.

“I really missed you guys,” donghyuck laughed.

“it’s only been a few hours, what happened? did you die inside or something?” he asked.

“if he was stuck with that ass johnny then I’m pretty sure he died ten times over.” replied jeno. jisung snorted. mark sat down slowly and began telling them what happened at the cherry bomb practice session that he had.

**_tuesday_ **

_“how is it that you could make me fall from a structure as grand and as bold as the great wall_

_of china to a delicate flower built from butterfly wings”_

tuesdays were really boring. he was going to debut in another unit called nct china, when he wasn’t even chinese. mark wasn’t even exaggerating here, but everyone knew that being mark, he would immediately get their youtube channel more views.

 chinese versions of videos weren’t really looked at, seeing as exo’s overdose would get more than a hundred million views, then having the chinese version bring in around ten million or so. regrettably, mark also had johnny in the group, which benefitted the view on the management at sm, but didn’t really benefit the members. kun and yukhei were scared shitless at the sight of johnny, and sicheng looked at him like he was a gangster.

mandarin was really fucking hard. all the little lines and strokes were really pissing him the fuck off. it was hard enough to remember the strokes and shit and they expected him to learn it before debut. the basic stuff, he meant. if it was the entire language, mark was sure he woulda bitch slapped one of the staff.

mark chuckled at that thought as he seated himself next to sicheng. the latter smiled up at him with his teeth showing, one of those cute smiles you’d see rarely on a guy. he naturally slung his arm around him and yawned. sicheng’s ears perked up at the sound, ~~because he’s a secret elf that lives in terabithia~~ , and he pulled mark down to his lap, slightly cradling him though letting him move as freely as he wanted.

“ni hao ma?” said mark, soft enough to be missed. sicheng had heard, and giggled slightly to himself.

“i’m okay, thanks. when did your mandarin get so good?” he replied. mark looked him incredulously.

“when did your korean get so good?” mark asked, with an equal amount of playfulness in his voice. sicheng ruffled his hair

“i practiced a lot. when I’m not fucking taeyong, that is.” mark choked on his spit.

“since when was taeyong a bottom?” he enquired, generally interested.

“since forever. he’s tiny as fuck, remember? imagine him trying to-“ mark cut him off.

“okay, okay, tmi bro!”

“you know you love me.” mark reached for sicheng’s dark locks and tugged them slightly.

“everyone does, sicheng.”

kun came into the room and slammed the door, leaning against the wall and slowly sliding down it. sicheng’s face contorted into a worried one.

“how’d it go?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“i have bulimia, and it’s bad.” kun said, his voice cracking with each word he spoke. sicheng watched intently, as if waiting for something to happen.

“my body fat percentage was 13.2% and it fell 4% in the past 2 weeks. the doc said that i’d have to go to the food clinic and gave me anti depressants as well as pills to help me with the constant heaving.”

mark found himself staring attentively at kun, a strange sensation falling on his face. once he diverted his attention, he could see that sicheng was most certainly drowning in his own tears, too speechless to say anything. mark lifted himself up from his place and moved towards kun. the latter had looked at him sceptically before laughing a manical laugh.

“i guess we’re both in need of special help, huh?” kun had said, making sure to cover his head to avoid whatever thing that mark would throw at him, but nothing came. he could hear the fleeting footsteps tapping away at the wooden floor, followed by little squeaks.

“stop feeling so sorry for yourself. talk to me when you get your shit together.” he looked up to see sicheng by the door harshly rubbing his tears. his mouth gaped at the fact that _dong sicheng just spat at him maliciously in chinese_. sicheng proceeded to slam the door behind him and  then run in the direction that mark went.

 

mark had gone to the cafeteria to clear his mind of all things that were invading it right now. he couldn’t understand what his feelings were. was he happy? was he sad? was he angry? or was he just plain confused? there were moments that mark hated himself and this was one of them. areum only worked the morning shift, so there were only two people behind the till. trying to busy himself, he got a brush pen out of his sweatshirt’s pocket and his little notebook. unscrewing the cap with his mouth, he began drawing thick and thin lines across the pages and started to form words in english. he was in the middle of the word ‘control’ when he felt the couch that he was sitting on sink a little. the person leaned closely and sounded out the words like a child world in their phonics lessons.

“why – am  – i – being – like – this ?” he said, more like struggled, and mark couldn’t help but stifle a giggle.

“when did your english get so good?” he asked, a hint of playfulness carried by his voice. sicheng pushed him a little.

“ how are you feeling?”

“like shit.”

“don’t let what kun said get to you, okay?” mark looked at sicheng. the older boy started tearing bits off of his nails as he spoke.

“i just don’t understand why every one is calling you crazy, you’re perfectly normal.”

“you think so?”

“i know so.”

mark smiled. he looked up to sicheng monitoring, analysing his face in any way possible. by the way he was staring at mark seemed as if it was scrutinising him, save for the fact that he was sicheng and that just didn’t happen. sicheng and scrutinising didn’t fit in the same sentence. it was getting uncomfortable for mark and just when he was about to make a stupid excuse to leave, sicheng spoke.

“you’re very handsome, you know. if you slept more and didn’t think about practice all the time.” mark sighed.

“practice makes perfect, sicheng-hyung.” he retorted, covering his head with his arms.

“practice makes you sick when you’re already perfect.” sicheng replied with a trivial frown.

“are you hitting on me?”

“what if i am?”

“kiss me already, you doofus.”

“gladly.”

sicheng grabbed mark’s arms and held them down, tilting his head so that he was comfortable and captured mark’s lips. the first was chaste and sweet, but mark wanted more. it wasn’t as if mark was in love with sicheng, he just needed some love right now. he wanted to _feel_ loved. he let sicheng do as he pleased for now. he felt as if sicheng was unlocking new parts of him one little bit at a time. it was a good feeling. mark could get used to it.

“hey, mark, jeno asked me if you could- what’s going on here?” mark looked at the door to see donghyuck standing there with his notebook and pen on the ground. his face showed nothing. not even the slightest bit of emotion.

“i’ll – i’ll just leave you guys alone.” he had said, leaving without his belongings and running out of the door to god knows where. mark was confused.

“mark?”

he hummed.

“who was that?”

“my best friend.” sicheng snorted a little.

“mark?” he hummed again.

“are you sure i’m not stopping you from a potential relationship?”

“ew, he’s like my brother.” sicheng laid his head on mark’s chest.

“because i’d hate to be a replacement or something.”

“you aren’t, i’m pretty damn sure.” sicheng got up.

“kun’s probably mad at me. and he’s pretty damn petty about apologies too, so i probably don’t have anywhere to sleep tonight.” mark chuckled a little. sicheng pouted.

“maybe i’d just have to take your bed tonight. and since i’m your hyung, you’d have to sleep on the floor.”

mark chuckled more than a little bit.

“i don’t mind at all.”

**_wednesday_ **

_“ the day we met was the day i died and was born again.”_

 

mark woke up with two long arms surrounding him. it was a strange kind of comfortable. he ran his fingers along them slowly and felt a shift. he turned his head around to much sicheng’s, greeting the boy with not-so-slightly prolonged peck on the forehead. sicheng moved his arms to mark’s stomach and rubbed it slowly.

“morning sunshine.” sicheng had said.

“morning.” mark had replied with a raspy voice.

“how’re you feeling?”

“like I’m high.” mark smiled as he spoke.

“what’s that mean?” mark got up and threw his head back a little to bask in the morning sun. facing sicheng, he spoke using gestures.

“it’s like you’re there, but you’re not there at the same time.” he explained. sicheng sat up too, but he looked dumbfounded.

“sicheng-hyungie, blink once if you get me. blink twice if you don’t.” sicheng blinked four times. mark sighed.

“you’re impossible.”

“but you love me.”

“i’ll learn to love you like a lover would.” sicheng looked at mark.

“what are we, then?” mark looked at sicheng’s eyes.

“it depends, do you love me?” mark shrugged to make it seem nonchalant.

“i don’t know?” mark exhaled.

“then we’re friends with benefits.”

“somehow i’m okay with that.” sicheng smiled. he leaned forward to hold mark’s hand. it was going to be okay.

wednesday was the most boring day of the week, hands down. he was on the walk to his college with areum. taking five a levels was hell itself. at the beginning of the year, he chose french, as it was an international school and that being canadian really fucking helped. he silently gave kudos to the founding fathers of canada.

“yah! mark!” mark snapped out of his reverie.

“uh huh?”

“does lightning mcqueen need car insurance or life insurance?” mark stopped walking.

“okay, seriously, what the fuck?”

“i think he would get life insurance. oh but then he’s a goddamn car,”

“areum.”

“or maybe a joint one. that’d be cool.”

“areum!”

“what?”

“i actually have something important to say today.” areum gasped. if mark were her, he would’ve done the same thing. he never has something to say. maybe because he’s so fucking boring.

“well…”

“well what?”

“i kinda have this thing going on with sicheng…” areum stopped.

“now stop right there because imma tell you to hold the fuck up.” she said. mark bit his lip. of course! he was so stupid. sicheng was a boy. and he was a boy too. how did he expect her to accept him that quickly?

her banshee voice brought him out his train of thought.

“okay, uhm, wow. i thought it would take you years to get your emotions out of your ass. like damn I’m meant to get a boyfriend before you! since when is my little markeu  getting more than me?”

ha, mark thought. i worried about nothing.


	2. dw markhyuck is okay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey again!!my padawans  
> my school is starting on the 7th of sept and i have 43 hours of kdramas to finish as well as this fic  
> anyways enjoy the second trainwreck of a chapter  
> next one coming v soon

okay, mark was overreacting. areum knowing about the little affiliation that he and sicheng have was weighing on his mind like it was a, well, weight.

mark and areum were sitting in their french class with their teacher. their last teacher had gone on a leave not because of her pregnancy but probably because of the fact that everyone had suddenly learnt the phrase ‘fermez le bouche’ and began using it against her. it was a shame, really. mark had really liked her.

fast forward to around four pm the same day, in the nct u practice room. mark was struggling a little after finding out that he was falling behind on his mandatory english lit class. it was too much to handle, he thought, because who the fuck really cared if henry the eighth had six wives? most men these can’t get themselves a girlfriend, let alone six wives. props to you man, mark thought.

jeno came in right then, and by the looks of it he looked pretty damn pissed. from experience, he knew that it was suicide being near an angry jeno. it’s like you’re voluntarily taking an overdose of suicide pills each step you stood closer to him, jisung would say. jeno stalked over with those long ~~sexy~~ legs of his and grabbed the front of his shirt, pushing him further and further against the wall until he felt that his throat was going to burst. when mark made a move to speak, jeno shut him up.

“shhh, you just shut your little pretty mouth,” he had said, earning a gulp out of mark.

“what a dick move, mark. you lead donghyuck on and all hopes of you two being gross together are shattered just because you decided to make out with one of _them_. you’ve done fucked up, my man.”

mark shivered at the way he said _them_ , like it was a foreign word to jeno.

“i’m not done yet. while i was waiting outside for your ass to come and have breakfast i heard that you weren’t entirely in love with him. which is why jaemin is waiting outside with _both_ donghyuck and the other kid so yall can kiss and make the fuck up. capisce?”

mark nodded profusely.

jeno got up and dusted himself off, opening the door wide open for donghyuck and the ‘other kid’, sicheng, to come in.

jeno looked at mark with hisfake ass crescent moon eyes, which meant  ‘if you fucking fuck up in this fucking make the fuck up and kiss the fuck out of each other me and my fucking boy jaemin will fuck you the fuck up’.

once they were all fully seated, mark awkwardly cleared his throat to get his attention.

“uhm, sicheng-hyungie? donghyuck-ah?” donghyuck clicked his tongue in annoyance when sicheng reached out to mark’s knee, rubbing it tenderly. donghyuck sighed.

“i don’t get it mark. all this time you’ve been leading me on and now you drop the motherfucking cherry bomb on th- hey you, don’t laugh – on me and now i’m heartbroken as hell.” he blurted, crossing his arms.

sicheng looked genuinely shocked. his eyes were tearing up and his lower lip was quivering.

“mark,”

he gave no answer.

“mark, “

yup, no answer.

“minhyung-ie.” sicheng had finally said. mark looked up in shock. donghyuck saw this and added in a ‘who’s that?’ for good measure.

“wha-“

“i know it’s going to sound crazy, but i have to say it. i was looking for my file in the meetings room when i saw a file on mark. i know it’s a bit creepy, but i realised that i knew basically nothing about him. so i carefully looked through it and saw that your real name was crossed out and was written as mark.”

donghyuck raised his hand.

“that’s not crazy though.”

“wait until you hear the rest. taeyong-hyung had gotten mad at me after he found out that i spent the night with mark so he punched me in my,” he pointed to his collarbone, “this, and after that he was really scared for like a second and he told me to stay away from you. he told me to remember what i was told when i first came.”

“the day i came was the fifth of january last year. we had a meeting on the seventh of january and i remember going to it though i didn’t understand what was going on. remember? i was sickeningly chinese and i couldn’t speak a lick of korean.”

donghyuck raised his hand once again.

“does it have to do with us?” he had said, trying to hide the obvious fakeness behind his voice.

sicheng nodded.

“okay, then. relationship problems, later. right now we have to find out what the hell is going on with the company.”

sicheng mumbled a small ‘fighting!’ while donghyuck nodded.

“okay. sicheng, do you have any other information?” mark asked, relief washing over him as the older boy nodded generously. sicheng pulled out of his messenger bag a ziplock bag full of cassettes, which had dates written on them. mark had moved himself so that he, donghyuck and sicheng made a circle. after pouring them out, sicheng clapped his hands.

“okay! i got these from the little room behind the meeting room. i think it was called a filming room? anyways, it had those things you pull, drawers i think, and it had all the important meetings recorded that our group had.” donghyuck nodded.

“i came later than everyone else, so i’m not in most of them. we can watch these in one of our rooms.” donghyuck put his hand up.

“why don’t we watch it in mark’s room. no one goes there except from johnny and jaehyun, but i think you can hold them off, right? since you’re one of them.” sicheng frowned, but still answered.

“okay, then. i’ll talk to them now, so why don’t we meet at eleven o’clock tomorrow? i’m free then.”

mark and donghyuck both nodded simultaneously.

sicheng made a noise of approval and got up to leave the room. once he left, donghyuck heaved a sigh.

“oh thank god, i thought that i’d die if i continued being fake for even a moment.” mark scrunched his face up.

“what’s so bad about sicheng?”

“he’s one of _them._ ”

“that’s not sufficient.” donghyuck swerved himself around to face the mirror.

“well i don’t have to answer you all the time, do i?” mark looked at donghyuck through the mirror. making funny faces, mark succeeded in making donghyuck laugh. they sat in a comfortable silence for a good three minutes.

“hey donghyuck?”

he hummed.

“help me answer this question.” donghyuck guffawed.

“what is it?”

“how does henry the eighth treat his third wife?” mark held his workbook up for donghyuck to see.

“isn’t that the one rhyme that they taught us in school? divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived, right?” mark frowned.

“why are you smarter than me?” donghyuck got up and ruffled mark’s head.

“just because.”

after a lot of pestering from areum, mark made his way to the dinner table the members shared. as donghyuck and mark sat, they earned _quite_ the variety of looks from the others. donghyuck, _haechan_ , looked down as soon as he felt the room’s eyes on him. mark saw and instinctively moved closer to him. he held donghyuck’s hand on his lap, covered by the tablecloth so no one else saw. johnny had his arm slung around ten’s shoulders, said boy playing with johnny’s long hair (‘oh my god it’s yoon jeonghan.’ donghyuck had whispered once he saw johnny).

“what’s for dinner tonight, superstar?” johnny had so lethargically said, directed at tonight’s chef, taeyong.

“rice, rice and curry. haechan’s mother brought it over because we were treating her son ever so nicely. awh, that’s so cute.” taeyong had said, his eyes locked on donghyuck the entire time. donghyuck was sure that he’d shrivelled into a prune the whole 6 minutes he had been sitting at the table.

“round of applause for us treating  haechannie over here fantastically!”johnny hollered, putting his hands over his head. a sea of applause followed after, jaehyun whooping over it.

once the plates arrived, the chatter died down to mere whispers, with doyoung using johnny’s piano sheets to mask his conversation with jaehyun.

“try not to eat too much, haechannie. we don’t want those cheeks getting any chubbier.” said jaehyun, who made an ugly face after. mark dropped his chopsticks and got up, unlinking his and donghyuck’s fingers and looking at jaehyun.

“i think this is enough for today.”

“it’s rude to leave the dinner table while everyone is still eating, mark. we might have to report you for being like this.”

“please, sm can’t touch me.”

“you’re easy to get rid of, mark. and your little friend there, too.” johnny retorted.

“it’s not that easy to get rid of me, especially when i’ve been in more music videos than you and jaehyun combined.” mark let a smile tug at his lips as he motioned for donghyuck to go first.

when they got back to mark’s room, it was already dark outside and mark felt a little chill as he walked into his room. it was relatively silent, bar the grumbling noises that donghyucks stomach made as he sat playing with mark’s hair.

“mark?”

“hmm?”

“i’m hungry.” mark chuckled. he pulled out his phone and after a lot of tapping, he put it away.

“wait a little bit, then. our saviour will come.” donghyuck made a little hooting sound of consent. after a good ten minutes or so, little pattering sounds could be heard. mark and donghyuck walked over to the window, narrowly dodging a rock, and waving down at areum.

she stood there with two bags of chicken from the nearby joint.

“i can’t go into the boys’ dorms remember? how the hell are you gonna get this?” she pulled a face.

“throw it!” donghyuck had shouted.

areum smiled and swung the bags up, landing in donghyuck’s hands.

later on, after the boys had eaten the chicken, they were lying on their backs on mark’s bed. donghyuck burped.

“we should’ve invited the other boys over. it’s a shame they had to go somewhere.” donghyuck turned over.

“i kinda enjoyed it.”

“what do you mean?”

“us being alone, i mean.” mark got up and threw a pillow at him.

“i mean it! i seriously mean it!” donghyuck laughed. he threw another pillow at mark, who dodged it with ease. donghyuck slid onto the floor and walked into mark’s bathroom. mark craned his head to see what donghyuck was doing, and fell off the bed in the process. mark crawled into the bathroom to see his best friend standing on the scale, making faces at the numbers.

“mark?”

“what’re you doing?”

“do you think i’ve gained weight?” mark gasped. he pulled donghyuck off of the scale and threw his arms around him.

“don’t let what they said to you earlier affect you. you’re beautiful as it is.”

“i’m beautiful?” mark got off of donghyuck.

“of course, why can’t my sun be beautiful?”

“please don’t tell me those were references to sun and moon.”

“you know it.”

 

_thursday_

 

mark sat at his favourite seat in the caféteria and had his textbook out because the underworld just had to punish him for having strict deadlines. he had gotten so distracted the night before that he’d forgotten to finish off his homework. areum came then, in the midst of tying her apron and trying to finish the maryland cookie balancing on her lower lip. once the cookie fel on to the floor, she grimaced loudly.

“ugh, and the floor was just waxed today. the manager will have my head if he found out about this!”she sulked. after scanning his homework and sending it off to the teacher, mark stalked off to help areum clean up the little mess that she made on the floor. it was little things like this that told mark that areum wasn’t having the best day.

“hey, areum?”

“hmm?”

“what’s wrong?” areum gasped.

“oh my, the great mark lee cares about others?” mark glowered.

“you know what i mean you dumbass.” areum smiled solemnly.

“it’s nothing.”

“yeah, and i’m straighter than a one hundred and eighty degree angle.” areum looked at him weirdly.

“but you’re not strai-“

“exactly.” areum hummed. she sat down on the floor and ran her fingers along the hardwood, sniffing every few seconds.

“there’s an iljin here.”

“i’m sorry, i – what?”

“johnny and jaehyun-sunbaenim cornered me after dinner yesterday.” mark’s eyes widened.

“did they do anything?” he enquired, crouching down to her height.

“no, they asked me a lot of questions.” mark shot a ‘like what?’ look to her and she gulped.

“they asked me if _haechan_ was your boyfriend and if i was in the whole ignoring them thing. i said that he wasn’t though! don’t worry! as for ignoring them, i didn’t get what he meant.” mark looked at his watch, then got up.

“i’m sorry, i have something really important i have to do.” he said, turning himself so he could run as soon as areum spoke.

“daebak improtant?”

“daebak important.”

at eleven o’ clock, mark was already sat on his bed playing with the hard part of his snapback. donghyuck and sicheng came in simultaneously, looking slightly more comfortable with each other than the day before. the trio sat with mark, who leaned against his headboard and looked dazedly at the two. sicheng had brought the cassettes from the day before, which were scattered around the comforter which was draped around them. donghyuck raised his hand.mark nodded.

“these tapes all have nct written on them, but they have different numbers after nct. do they stand for units?” sicheng shook his head. he pointed to one and spoke.

“lee soo man-ssi would’ve told us so it’s highly unlikely that this would stand of another unit.unless,”

“unless what?”

“unless there is a specific code or meaning behind them!” mark’s eyes lit up. he sat up and moved them around. picking one up, he looked at it. it had the letters n, c and t, which mark certainly knew stood for nct. after it, however, he spotted a strange character. it wasn’t in hangeul or hanja, and it certainly wasn’t in roman characters. it was a long vertical line with a smaller line that faced in the south east direction. it also had two little lines above the south east line that faced in the same path.

“this can’t just be a random symbol or something. there has to be a meaning that every hyung has to understand.” said mark, propping his head up with his hand. sicheng whined a little before jumping a little.

“what about a secret language?”

“let’s be realistic here, sicheng-hyungie.” mark sighed. he really was a baby like all the fans were saying. donghyuck pouted for a second before moving his entire body to look at mark.

“what if he’s right? it’s something the older members know more than just a little of, but not us. that must include _winwin_. and it can’t be anything majorly and or minorly korean, since i’m a native.”

they all sat in thought for a while, mark tapping his foot and sicheng peeling his fingernails in agitation.

“yah! sicheng, don’t leave your fingernails on my bed!”

“aah mianhaeyo mark-ah!” mark pulled a face.

“ah! i have an idea!” donghyuck exclaimed, making the boys turn their attention to him.

“nct has foreign members, correct?” the two boys nodded, “well, _winwin_ here is chinese, though we know that it isn’t in the script, so we have two members left.” they all nodded.

“yuta and ten.” mark clarified.

“ten is thai, isn’t he? we have yukhei, though. yukhei would have taught us was he was teaching them.” sicheng pondered out loud.

“yuta has to be it.” said mark, gaining looks from the others.

“it’s simple. he’s one of sm’s first japanese idols. he’s the only japanese member of the group.” he explained.

“well, we can’t just ask him, he hates us.”

“he doesn’t hate _winwin._ ” marksmirked.

it turned out that yuta was in osaka for a sr15b fan signing due to the fact that many japanese fans still enjoyed the little unit that sm had created for the time being years ago. sicheng had brought his laptop this time, opening it and triple clicking on the safari icon. once he had gotten his tab (more like tabs, he got two extra so he had to delete them first) and clicked the search bar, he tried typing random ideas that the others threw at him. so far, he’d already put ‘weird japanese secret language’ and ‘otaku weird letters’, but they didn’t bring up decent results.

they had already missed lunch time, and the laptop was starting to run out of battery. the boys’ stomachs were starting to catch up with them and mark was more than a little agitated.

“agh, this is harder than when i was learning pinyin!” sicheng blinked once, twice, three times. he suddenly let out a yelp and pulled the laptop on to his lap (‘you know you can be infertile if you do that, your sperm will cook in your balls.’ ‘kindly jump off a cliff haechannie.’)

sicheng started to furiously tap tap tap on the keyboard and it stopped when he went to move onto the touchpad. a click here and there lead him to the page he was looking for, and once he found it, his eyes lit up.

he turned around to face mark and donghyuck, showing them the screen. it was on google images, showing the table of japanese letters. it was set on hiragana, but the letters had much more curvier lines than the ones written on the tape, so donghyuck had reached out to change the picture. mark had tried to slap his hand away which resulted in donghyuck pressing the space bar, pulling the page further down than expected. sicheng grimaced, but took his time to analyse the picture anyway. it said ‘reality is wrong, dreams are real’ and had a word that was seemingly repeated in different languages underneath. sicheng recognised one of them as chinese, and gasped.

“i think i know this, this word, mark! i might know it!”

“what is it, then?”

“i can read it as ‘méng’, and i know that means dream in korean.” donghyuck gave him a ‘what the fuck are you talking about’ look. mark pointed at the screen.  

“he’s right, donghyuck-ie. réve is dream in french.”

“and it’s the return of canadian mark!” donghyuck drawled out, earning himself more than a little nudge from mark.

“i’m serious, now we have to get this over with. we’ve wasted so much of our precious time-“

“hold up. hold up the fucking train. look,” donghyuck points to the laptop, “those four characters are the same as the ones on the tapes.” mark squints his eyes and looks at sicheng for confirmation, who simply shrugs. donghyuck huffs.

“open your goddamn eyes,bitch!” donghyuck picks the tapes and lines them up in the same order as the characters are shown on the screen.

“if we scroll up to the alphabet we had earlier on, we can write it in korean!” donghyuck said. once he had finished, he got his little notepad out of  his playsuit pocket (‘we’re going for the detective look today,’) and he scrawled the words on quickly.

“i don’t think we’re meant to properly translate it into korean. then we’d completely change the evidence.”

“donghyuck, please stop.” donghyuck huffed again.

“but, seriously. you can read it as ‘dream’,” mark chuckles because of how korean donghyuck is, “or ‘nct dream’.” mark inhaled sharply.

“what’s that?” sicheng asked.

“probably a new unit? i don’t know, my mind is still pretty damn fucked up from the whole secret language thing.”donghyuck says, looking at mark carefully.

they sat in silence for a few moments, thinking carefully about this revelation. donghyuck made a little ‘oh!’ sound.

“what if it was a unit that was intended for new trainees? or maybe they were killed?”

“that’s unrealistic.”

“your face is unrealistic, mark.”

“fuck you.”

“i’d fuck me too, but, it’s just not possible.” mark smacked donghyuck on the back. donghyuck gave a look of shock.

“you know, i have child services on my speed dial.”

“congratulations.”

sicheng shook his head and smiled at the both of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dsjjddsdjdj whats gonna happen??idek myself  
> im kinda making this up as i go along??so anyone who knew what was gonna happen be fuckin prepared  
> comments below!!!i wanna meet yall, say hi or something im starting to think my readers are dead  
> i luv yall v much


	3. what even is this chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyooo ppl  
> i just started school so=== i can't update as often as you think i'd be able to??idk tell that to the teacher that gave me four hours of science on a tuesday

sicheng could feel a slight yawn creep up on him as he sat watching the two boys bicker. he looked at the thing that told the time (‘a clock?’) and his eyes widened when he saw that it was way past nine thirty. sniffing loudly, he waved his arms to gain mark’s attention. when mark looked at him, he motioned to the door and tried getting up before donghyuck stopped him.  


   


“where’re you going? it’s only quarter to ten. and there’s no practice today.” mark raised an eyebrow.  


“to the dorms. kun and taeyong are probably waiting for me.”  


“okay then. goodnight sicheng.” mark smiled as if it was a normal thing. sicheng left the room and walked calmly for a few minutes, stopping when the loud sound of a crash could be heard. in

a weird mix between running and tiptoeing, he reached his room in time to see taeyong holding a chair above his head, anger flickering dangerously in his eyes. on the floor, he could see kun

leisurely smiling and waving profusely at him. taeyong seethed.  


“so, sicheng. nice of you to finally come here.” he said, eye contact not wavering for even a second. sicheng gulped.  


“what kind of sicko are you friends with? i have to say, it’s not the best sight to see someone hurling in your bathroom, huh?” taeyong let the chair hit the ground behind him and walked up to

sicheng. grabbing his hand, taeyong walked out of the room to the communal bathroom. going to the largest stall, taeyong pushed sicheng in and locked them both in. sicheng blinked.  


“hyung? why are we here?”  


“have you forgotten our deal?” sicheng looked down.  


“no, hyung.” taeyong smiled.  


“well then, let’s get on with it.”

   


in the other room, donghyuck and mark settled with mark’s old cassette player, shoving the ‘d’ part of ‘dream’ into it. the screen started to fizz a little, before showing a 404 error. they tried

putting in the cassettes differently until they saw that the ‘m’ part of ‘dream’ was working slightly better than the others. mark and donghyuck moved backwards a little and watched as the

video fizzled into life.  


the screen showed a room that mark recognised as the meeting room before it’s renovations took place. at the table sat taeyong with his undyed brown hair followed by the rest of the nct 127

members excluding mark and haechan themselves, as well as hansol and ten. they all sat listening attentively. lee soo man himself was stood at the interactive board, with a baton. he was

pointing to a picture of donghyuck.  


“this member has great potential-“ donghyuck grinned smugly,”but we cannot let him surpass everyone in this room.” donghyuck raised an eyebrow. mark put a finger to his lips.  


“he has a fanbase already, which is the problem here. we need to deny the existence of his group members.” lee soo man earned curt nods from around the room. the slide changed to pictures

of jaemin, jeno, renjun, chenle and jisung respectively, towhich soo man had said the same thing about. the slide changed to mark’s face, which earned gasps.  


“though mark is a member of nct 127, he is extremely against not letting the others debut. which is why i am ordering you all to deny mark’s truth.” taeyong bit his lip but nodded

nonetheless.  


“we understand, soo man-ssi.”  


“dismissed.”  


the video ended with an abrupt ‘zing!’ and fizzed out. mark sat with a face that probably was just as blown as his mind at that moment.  


“mark? are you okay?” donghyuck asked, genuinely worried.  


“we need to call the others, this might be serious.”

   


_**friday** _

   


mark plopped down on his designated seat in the cafeteria after running to get his lunch before the sandwiches for that day ran out. the cafeteria was surprisingly full, what with the staff

members and other groups.  


“mark! are you even listening?”  


he turned to look at seulgi with his eyes wide.  


“yah! noona. you scared me.” she sighed.  


“what’s wrong with you today? usually you’re so attentive.” mark swerved his chair around to face her.  


“how do you operate with a blown mind?”  


“i’m not going to answer that.”  


“fine by me, noona.”

   


later on in mark’s dorm, jeno and jaemin sat with renjun, chenle and jisung on the bed, watching mark and donghyuck pacing the room. sicheng was leaning against the wall. donghyuck had

blurted out the details of what they had seen and were waiting for their reactions. jeno raised his hand.  


“question.”  


“ask away.”  


“is this the reason why we haven’t debuted yet?” mark gave a terse nod. jaemin sighed and poked at his crutches.  


“this is so confusing.” jisung sat up. everyone looked at him.  


“if the members were told to do this to us, it technically means that they can stop.” mark’s eyes lit up.  


“i’m not crazy, then.” he laughed silently.  


“we need to have a foolproof plan then.”

   


“taeyong-hyung?” taeyong gave a look of disgust to donghyuck.  


“haechannie? this is the hyungs’ dorm. midgets like you shouldn’t be here, you know.” donghyuck flashed back to what mark said earlier.  


“speak informally, it’ll work.” donghyuck gave himself a mini pep talk in his mind and sighed heavily.  


“ty, get yo ass outta here, or i’ll beat it myself. just like how you beat sicheng.” taeyong’s face blanked. donghyuck smirked.  


“sicheng’s not an innocent virgin, that i know for sure. but what i do know is that you’ve hurt him before.” a visible gulp sounds from taeyong, “the kid’s pale as fuck. it’s hard not to see them.

the bruises i mean.” taeyong shifted in his position. donghyuck shoved a piece of paper in his hands and left. dejected, taeyong opened it up and read it carefully. he sighed.

   


“yuta-hyung?” yuta looked up from his position on hansol’s lap and smiled.  


“what can your favourite hyung do for you today sicheng?” sicheng looked at the two and blinked.  


“who’s jeno? and jaemin? and renjun and chenle? jisung?” he asked, whispering to avoid any other attention from the others in the common room. yuta tensed.  


“what? i’ve never heard those names in my life i-“  


“cut the crap. i’ve seen the tapes.” hansol pursed his lips.  


“what are you even doing here, winwin? aren’t you meant to have your korean lessons or whatever? since you haven’t improved that much, have you?” he yawned. sicheng’s head snapped to

hansol.  


“aren’t you meant to be debuting?” sicheng could hear johnny and jaehyun’s ‘ooooh’s from the other corner of the room. hansol got up and raised his hand to sicheng but withdrew once it

began to shake violently. he bit his lip and stood, quivering, before running out of the room. sicheng stood as if nothing happened. extending his hand out to yuta, he spoke.  


“do you want the same treatment, yuta hyung?” he shook his head ferociously, “take this then. i’ll take it you’ll come.” yuta nodded. sicheng smiled sweetly and skipped out. inside of the room,

jaehyun looked at johnny with his hand covering his chest.  


“that was..”  


“that was hot as fuck.” jaehyun finished for him. johnny hesistated for a second.  


“ok same.”

   


“taeil-hyung.” he looked up from his book.  


“yes mark?” mark gulped, fiddling with his fingers.  


“are you free tomorrow?” taeil hummed.  


“yeah, i think so. why? do i need to be somewhere?” mark handed him the folded piece of paper.  


“here you go. don’t be late.”  


“okay.”  


mark left, with the thought that it was simply too easy to get to taeil. he loved him, really, but taeil was too good-hearted for him. it made him feel like the worst person out there, even if he

was well-behaved most of the time. mark pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind.

   


jeno sat with a piece of pizza resting on his lap facing jaemin who was fingering his back support silently. jeno could sense the discomfort in the room, so, with his slightly greasy hands, he

offered jaemin his pizza. jaemin waved him off, saying a quiet ‘it’s okay’ under his breath. jeno tapped jaemin with his free hand and gave him a look that asked ‘what’s wrong?’. jaemin

swallowed.  


“you know when this is all solved,” jeno nodded, “do you think i’ll be able to debut with you?”  


“jaemin, you know that you’re my best friend, right?” he nodded, “well, best friends don’t put each other in dilemmas. you know that?”  


“so you don’t believe that i’ll debut with you?” jeno saw the fleeting look that jaemin gave him.  


“no, no, no! that’s not it! i swear!”he protests, waving his hands in front of him.  


“then what did you mean? i’ll get better, i promise! is that what you want me to say to you now? best friends are meant to back each other, right? come and talk to me when you get your head

out of your ass, dick.” and just like that, jaemin got up and stalked out of the room. jeno fell backwards onto the bed.  


“what’s got jaemin’s panties in a twist?” jeno opened his eyes to see renjun peering down at him. jeno sighed.  


“nothing. jaemin just got mad at something i said.”  


“what did you say? he was saying that you were stupid again and again.” jeno sat up.  


“he’s overreacting, don’t worry renjunnie.”  


“but-“  


“no buts, now i wanna nap. night bro.” renjun waved to him and switched off the lights in their room, though, when he was closing the door, he slipped out and tiptoed into jaemin’s room. in

the dark, he could faintly see the lump under the covers that was jaemin. poking him until he came out, renjun readied himself to trap jaemin under him. once he captured him, he could see

the boy’s doe eyes staring widely at him.  


“renjun! what are you doing her-“ renjun covered the boy’s mouth.  


“everyone’s asleep. i missed you.” he harshly whispered. jaemin slowly removed renjun’s hands from his mouth and grinned widely. 

  


  


“hey chenle,”  


 “yeah?”  


“what time is it?” chenle looked at the clock on the wall, the one that ticked loud enough to distract them.  


“it’s like nine thirty-five. why?” jisung and chenle were in their shared room and they were alternating between watching the re-run of seraph of the end and reading the book chenle got from

school, ‘earthbound’.  


“can we do something else? no offense chenle, but the story is going nowhere. you’ve been reading to me for the past three hours and tavia is still thirsting for the quinn dude. girl, he ain’t

shit if he keeps disappearing every day! and the benson dude is making this way worse.” chenle pouted.  


“benson is a beneficial character in the story, ok?”  


“chenle, stop. i know you’re undressing him in your mind.”  


“for my benefit, i don’t even know what he looks like.”  


“but he sounds hot, and that’s like the only reason i borrowed this book.” jisung would’ve done a spit take if he was eating right now. after his laughing episode, he spoke,  


“let’s bet. if tavia leaves benson for quinn, you have to dye your hair that gatorade color.”  


“holy fuck, are you serious? this is gold.” chenle spat on his hand and extended it.  


“spit shake?” jisung mimiced him and shook his hand.  


“keep reading, loser.”

   


mark and donghyuck sat next to mark’s window, watching the lunar eclipse happen. the moon was a blood red colour which seemed to bleed onto the clouds.  


“hey, mark.” mark hummed.  


“if i’m the sun, and you’re the moon, does that mean that you’re on your period?” mark coughed.  


“what the everloving fuck.”  


“how do periods even work? i’m legitimately confused.”  


“donghyuck? what’s wrong with you today?”  


“so you don’t have a sperm to fertilise your egg, and then the egg plants itself onto the uterus wall and calls for a fucking attack to happen because that little egg cell ain’t getting some. uhm,

thirsty much.” mark swerved around and grabbed donghyuck’s shoulders and shook them.  


“bro, what are you on?” donghyuck smirked under mark’s hold, “and don’t even say it-“  


“i’m on ko ko bop, bitch.” mark closed the curtains and the window and crouched down to give donghyuck a nasty flick on the forehead. donghyuck whined about it for a while before makingn

himself comfortable on mark’s bed. mark turned the lights off and walked quietly to him, sniffing a bit once he got there.  


“dude, are you crying?”  


“no. my eyes are sweating.”  


“it’s winter, you idiot. what’s wrong?” donghyuck dove under the covers and came back up with his head peeking out. he pulled mark in too.  


“what if the other members were forced into this? when we were trainees, it was fine between all of us. remember?”  


“they were, in a sense. the fact that they treat you badly without the presence of soo man is enough to show that they care much more about their careers than another person.” mark looked at

donghyuck, unable to see him but knowing already that he had the shit-eating pout he always wore when he was right. donghyuck turned to face mark.  


“but i know that’s not the only problem, right?” mark sighed.  


“what if i like boys? more than girls i mean?” he asked, anxiously awaiting donghyuck’s reaction.  


   


“that’s… just not normal, i guess.” mark was about to ask more, though when he heard light snoring sounds coming from the younger, he decided to save it for the next day.

   


_**saturday** _

   


renjun pulled himself out of the little bundle of limbs he wriggled into during the night to run a hand through his hair and look at the time on jaemin’s phone. it was pretty cute that jaemin

had a quote from el dorado as his lock screen, but renjun didn’t dare unlock it, unless he found something inappropriate (the worst probably being that one r-18 fanfiction of voltron that he

had kept on his phone for a while) which contributed to him to just checking the time really quickly and putting the phone back down. it read two-thirty, and as much as he wanted to wake

jaemin up for company, he couldn’t bear to disturb whatever dream he was having at that moment. renjun leaned back against the headboard, which made a creak loud enough to make jaemin

stir and eventually open his eyes.  


“huh? renjun, what time is it?”  


“ass o’clock. go back to bed.” jaemin turned his nightlight on, and the light now showed off the smile that jaemin must’ve been sporting the entire time. he grabbed renjun’s hand.  


leaning in close to renjun so he could smell the boy’s natural scent. that little bit of salt and the fabric softener that

literally only renjun’s mother has money for.

   


when jaemin and renjun turn up to breakfast, to which the entire dream team are present for including areum, who takes the time to get to know the others that were already awake and ready

to tackle the day head on, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened overnight.  


“did you guys do it?” renjun gulped noticeably.  


“did you have a pillow fight? how you’re able to do that is unbelieveable, i would’ve dropped dead by then.” mark says with an awed look on his face. jisung and areum simultaneously faceplant and the others clap for jaemin and renjun, who look on in absolute bliss. it was good that nobody knew about last night’s events. once the food arrives, renjun notices that jisung is

poking it with his chopstick, which seemed strange, since he’d usually inhale his food. he made a mental note that he’d ask later.  


breakfast was over in a blink, and since it was saturday, the other unit had practice when they had free time. the other members filed into the nct u practice room and began to set the karaoke

machine up. while they were choosing songs, ten and johnny had come in, hand-in-hand, to the room.  


“well, well, well, what do we have here?” renjun scrunched his face up in disgust.  


“a karaoke machine, what does it look like? a dildo?” he retorts, only to be ignored by johnny. chenle, jisung, jaemin and jeno try to hide their laughter with their mouths but only end up failing

to do so. jaemin sees that ten looks physically uncomfortable standing there, so renjun decides to test something.  


“johnny cheated on you with hansol at a party, ten.” jeno looks at renjun with a newfound admiration.  


“yeah, the only reason you haven’t reached fourth base is because he doesn’t want to do it with you.” jeno says, a nonchalant look on his face. ten looks at johnny weirdly.  


“ i hear that bambam is really close to ten nowadays.”  


“apparently ten said on a fancam that he only goes for thai guys and koreans are a waste.”  


“really?!”  


“definitely omg. you should’ve seen bambam’s face after. he was literally eye fucking ten.”  


“no fucking way.”  


“yes!! i should show you sometime!” jeno concludes, a smirk appearing on his face.  


the four sit down next to the mirror and watch as the couple begin to fight over what they had said. renjun got up after a few minutes and slid the piece of paper over to the two.  


“i know that both of yall can see me. you better come to this before i share more of my knowledge on you two. got that?”  


they thought that nct 127 was a storm, well, nct dream was a fucking hurricane.

   


**Author's Note:**

> okay guYs im SORRY FOR MAKING JOHNNY LIKE THIS AND MAKING KUN ACT UP  
> i really really really love johnny and the other members neomu neomu very heol daebak much  
> also the mark x sicheng thing jUSt happened my hands started typing it like it was norMAL  
> next chapter coming as soon as possible


End file.
